= NEWS This document is a list of user visible feature changes made between releases except for bug fixes. Note that each entry is kept so brief that no reason behind or reference information is supplied with. For a full list of changes with all sufficient information, see the ChangeLog file. == Changes since the 1.8.7 release See doc/NEWS-1.8.7 for changes between 1.8.6 and 1.8.7. === Compatibility issues * language core * New syntax and semantics o Block arguments are always local o New semantics for block arguments o Method used for splat arguments: #to_splat instead of #to_ary o defined? and local variables o Parser expects that your source code has only valid byte sequence in some character encoding. Use magic comments to tell the parser which encoding you use. * builtin classes and objects * Kernel and Object o Kernel#methods and #singleton_methods used to return an array of strings but now they return an array of symbols. * Class and Module o Module#attr is an alias of attr_reader o Module#instance_methods, #private_instance_methods and #public_instance_methods used to return an array of strings but now they return an array of symbols. o Extra subclassing check when binding UnboundMethods * Exceptions o Exceptions are equal to each other if they belongs to the same class and have the same message and backtrace. o SystemStackError used to be a subclass of StandardError but not it is a direct subclass of Exception. o SecurityError: ditto o Removed Exception#to_str [Ruby2] * Array o Array#nitems was removed (use count {|i| !i.nil?}) o Array#choice was removed (use sample) o Array#[m,n] = nil places nil in the array. * Enumerable and Enumerator o Enumerable::Enumerator, compatibility alias of Enumerator, is removed. o Enumerable#map,collect_all called without a block returns an enumerator. o Even more builtin and bundled libraries have been made to return an enumerator when called without a block. * File and Dir operations o #to_path is called as necessary in File.path, File.chmod, File.lchmod, File.chown, File.lchown, File.utime, File.unlink, etc.. o File.world_readable? o File.world_writable? o Dir.[], Dir.glob o Dir.exist? o Dir.exists? * File::Stat o File::Stat#world_readable? o File::Stat#world_writable? * String and Regexp o No longer an Enumerable o ?c semantics o "One-char-wide" semantics for String#[] and String#[]= o Character-wise semantics in many methods in stead of byte-wise. o Encoding-awareness o Regexp matches only with strings which is encoded in a compatible character encoding to the regexp's. o Regexp#kcode is removed. use Regexp#encoding. * Hash o Hash#to_s is equivalent to Hash#inspect o Semantics for Hash#each and Hash#each_pair o Hash#select returns a hash o Hash#key is the new name for #index which has been deprecated. o Hash preserves order. It enumerates its elements in the order in which the keys are inserted. o Most of the changes in Hash apply to hash like interfaces such as ENV and *DBM. * Numeric o Numeric#div always rounds as Integer#div has done. o Numeric#fdiv: ditto. * Integer o Integer(nil) raises TypeError * Fixnum o Fixnum#id2name removed o Fixnum#to_sym removed * IO operations o Many methods used to act byte-wise but now some of those act character-wise. You can use alternate byte-wise methods. o IO#getc o Non-blocking IO o Kernel#open takes "t" for newline conversion o Kernel#open takes encoding specified o IO#initialize now accepts an IO argument o IO automatically converts byte sequence from a character encodings into another if specified. o StringIO#readpartial o IO.try_convert o IO.binread o IO.copy_stream o IO#binmode? o IO#close_on_exec= and IO#close_on_exec? o Limit input in IO#gets, IO#readline, IO#readlines, IO#each_line, IO#lines, IO.foreach, IO.readlines, StringIO#gets, StringIO#readline, StringIO#each, StringIO#readlines o IO#ungetc, StringIO#ungetc o IO#ungetbyte, StringIO#ungetbyte o IO#internal_encoding, IO#external_encoding, IO#set_encoding o IO.pipe takes encoding option o Directive %u behaves like %d for negative values in printf-style formatting. * Struct o Struct#inspect * Symbols: restriction on literal symbols * $SAFE and bound methods o New trusted/untrusted model in addition to tainted/untainted model. * Time o New format in Time#to_s o Timezone information preserved on Marshal.dump/load * Deprecation o VERSION and friends o Kernel.to_a o Kernel#getc, #gsub, #sub o Kernel#callcc and Continuation now become 'continuation' bundled library. o Object#type o Symbol#to_int and Symbol#to_i o Numeric#rdiv o Hash#index o ENV.index o Process::Status#to_int o Precision is removed. Don't cry, it will be redesigned and come back in future version. o Removed Array and Hash #indices, #indexes o $KCODE is no longer effective. Use Encoding related features of each class. * bundled libraries * time and date o Time.parse and Date.parse interprets slashed numerical dates as "dd/mm/yyyy". * Readline o If Readline uses libedit, Readline::HISTORY[0] returns the first of the history. * Pathname o No longer has #to_str nor #=~. * Continuation o as above * Deprecation o Complex#image: use Complex#imag o All SSL-related class methods in Net::SMTP o Prime#cache, Prime#primes, Prime#primes_so_far o mailread library: use tmail gem. o cgi-lib library: use cgi. o date2 library: use date. o eregex library o finalize library: use ObjectSpace.define_finalizer if you really need a finalizer. really? o ftools library: use fileutils. o generator library: use Enumerator. o importenv library and Env library o jcode library: use multilingualization support of String o parsedate library o ping library o readbytes library o getopts library and parsearg library: use optparse or getoptlong. o soap, wsdl and xsd libraries: use soap4r gem. o Win32API library: use dl. o dl library: Reimplemented and API changed. o rubyunit library and runit library: use minitest or test/unit. Or use anything you love through RubyGems. o test/unit is reimplemented on top of minitest. This is not fully compatible with the original. === Language core changes * New syntax and semantics o Magic comments to declare in which encoding your source code is written o New literal hash syntax and new syntax for hash style arguments o New syntax for lambdas o .() and calling Procs without #call/#[] o Block in block arguments o Block local variables o Mandatory arguments after optional arguments allowed o Multiple splats allowed o #[] can take splatted arguments, hash style arguments and a block. o New directives in printf-style formatted strings (%). o Newlines allowed before ternary colon o Encoding.default_external and default_internal === Library updates * Kernel and Object o BasicObject o Object#=~ returns nil instead of false by default. o Kernel#define_singleton_method * Class and Module o Module#const_defined?, #const_get and #method_defined? take an optional parameter. o #class_variable_{set,get} are public. o Class of singleton classes * Binding#eval * Blocks and Procs o Arity of blocks without arguments o proc is now a synonym of Proc.new o Proc#yield o Passing blocks to #[] o Proc#lambda? o Proc#curry * Enumerable and Enumerator o Enumerable#each_with_index can take optional arguments and passes them to #each. o Enumerable#each_with_object o Enumerator#with_object o Enumerator.new { ... } * Errno::EXXX o All of those are always defined. Errno::EXX will be defined as an alias to Errno::ENOERROR if your platform does not have one. * Regexp#match, String#match o Regexp#match, String#match o Regexp#fixed_encoding? o Regexp#encoding o Regexp#named_captures o Regexp#names * Encoding * Encoding::Converter o supports conversion between many encodings * Fiber: coroutines/micro-threads * Array o Array#delete returns a deleted element rather than a given object o Array#to_s is equivalent to Array#inspect o Array.try_convert o Array#pack('m0') complies with RFC 4648. * Hash o preserving item insertion order o Hash#default_proc= o Hash#_compare_by_identity and Hash#compare_by_identity? o Hash.try_convert o Hash#assoc o Hash#rassoc o Hash#flatten * Numeric o Numeric#upto, #downto, #times, #step o Numeric#scalar?, Complex#scalar? o Numeric#magnitude * Range o Range#cover? o Range#include? iterates over elements and compares the given value with each element unless the range is numeric. Use Range#cover? for the old behavior, i.e. comparison with boundary values. o Range#min, Range#max * Regexp o Regexp#=== matches symbols o Regexp.try_convert * MatchData o MatchData#names o MatchData#regexp * String o String#clear o String#ord o String#getbyte, String#setbyte o String#chars and String#each_char act as character-wise. o String#codepoints, String#each_codepoint o String#unpack with a block o String#hash o String.try_convert o String#encoding, String#force_encoding, String#encode, String#encode! o String#ascii_only? o String#valid_encoding? * Symbol o Zero-length symbols allowed o Symbol#=== matches strings o Symbol#intern o Symbol#encoding o Symbol methods similar to those in String * Math o Math#log takes an optional argument. o Math#log2 o Math#cbrt, Math#lgamma, Math#gamma * Rational / Complex o They are core library now * File and Dir operations o New methods * Process o Process.spawn o Process.daemon * Thread o Thread.critical and Thread.critical= removed o Thread#exit!, Thread#kill! and Thread#terminate! removed. * Time o Time.times removed. Use Process.times. o Time#sunday? o Time#monday? o Time#tuesday? o Time#wednesday? o Time#thursday? o Time#friday? o Time#saturday? o Time#tv_nsec and Time#nsec * Readline o Readline.vi_editing_mode? o Readline.emacs_editing_mode? o Readline::HISTORY.clear * Tk o TkXXX widget classes are removed and redefined as aliases of Tk::XXX classes. * Misc. new methods o RUBY_ENGINE to distinguish between Ruby processor implementation o public_method o public_send o GC.count o ObjectSpace.count_objects o Method#hash, Proc#hash o Method#source_location, UnboundMethod#source_location, Proc#source_location o __callee__ o Elements in $LOAD_PATH and $LOADED_FEATURES are expanded * bundled libraries * RubyGems o Package management system for Ruby. o Integrated with Ruby's library loader. * Rake o Ruby make. A simple ruby build program with capabilities similar to make. * minitest o Our new testing library which is cleaner and easier to read than the old test/unit. o You can introduce the old test/unit as a gem through RubyGems if you want. * CMath o Complex number version of Math * Prime o Extracted from Mathn and improved. You can easily enumerate prime numbers. o Prime.new is obsolete. Use its class methods. * ripper o Ruby script parser * commandline options * -E, --encoding * -U * --enable-gems, --disable-gems * --enable-rubyopt, --disable-rubyopt * long options are allowed in RUBYOPT environment variable. === Implementation changes * Memory Diet * Object Compaction - Object, Array, String, Hash, Struct, Class, Module * st_table compaction (inlining small tables) * YARV * Ruby codes are compiled into opcodes before executed. * Native thread * Platform supports * Support levels (0) Supported (1) Best effort (2) Perhaps (3) Not supported * Dropped o No longer supports djgpp, human68k, MacOS 9 or earlier, VMS nor Windows CE.